McCarthy awaits first chance to run the show

Calling the plays just part of the game-day pressure

Aug. 10, 2006 11:47 PM

Packers coach Mike McCarthy, second from right, gathers with part of his staff during Thursday morning's practice at Clarke Hinkle Field. McCarthy is flanked by assistant offensive line coach James Campen, left, and offensive coordinator Jeff Jagodzinski, right. At far left is former Packers lineman Jerry Fontenot. Jim Matthews/Press-Gazette

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Besides getting his first chance to scout his players against another team, coach Mike McCarthy will get a dry run in game-day logistics in the Green Bay Packers' preseason opener on Saturday.

McCarthy has been a play-calling NFL offensive coordinator the past six years, but this is his first tenure as a head coach. So for the first time in his 14 years in the NFL, he'll be running an entire sideline and coaching operation when the Packers play at the San Diego Chargers.

McCarthy will continue calling plays. Unlike former coach Mike Sherman, who called the play to his quarterbacks coach, Darrell Bevell, who relayed the call to the quarterback, McCarthy will give the play directly to the quarterbacks via their helmet speakers.

McCarthy said he might have offensive coordinator Jeff Jagodzinski call some plays in the fourth quarter Saturday night, but the entire coaching staff needs to practice working their normal roles in a game setting, when countless observations, judgments and decisions have to made and communicated on the fly.

"I need to get back into it and call the game," McCarthy said after practice Thursday morning. "Just get the different mechanics, because there are different guys upstairs and different lines of communication, plus being coordinated with game management, defense, special teams. I'm doing it personally for experience, but also from a group standpoint."

McCarthy is comfortable calling plays from the sideline, because as an offensive coordinator with San Francisco last season and with New Orleans the five seasons before that, he called plays from the field rather than the bird's-eye view of the coaching booth. He experimented with working from the coaches' box while with the Saints early in the 2004 preseason but decided he preferred being on the field.

"As far as purely calling the game, it's better to be up," McCarthy said. "But all the other intangibles, the interaction with the quarterback, the pulse of your offense, you're exposed to more on the field. But it's a greater challenge, because the environment is so volatile compared to the booth."

McCarthy also will have final say on managing games for the first time, so he'll decide when to punt, try a field goal or go for it on fourth down; when to go for two points; when to challenge an official's decision with instant replay; and when to call timeouts, among the myriad decisions a head coach makes during a game.

"Especially as an offensive coordinator, I was very involved in game management," McCarthy said. "So I'm excited about it." Later, he added: "I've been in this league for 14 years. It wasn't like I just showed up from college."

Defensive backs coach Kurt Schottenheimer is his most experienced NFL assistant, with 20 years in the league, and from the coaching booth will advise McCarthy on game-management decisions, including when to challenge calls with replay.

On the field, McCarthy will consult on game management and replays with the invaluable Mike Eayrs, whose title is director of research and development and who has been the organization's computer-research guru of everything NFL since 2001.

"(Schottenheimer) is very good at that, very good at (replay) challenging and things like that," McCarthy said. "He has the most experience. Mike Eayrs is a guy that's special at what he does as far game management and game analysis."

In the coaching booth, quarterbacks coach Tom Clements will speak directly with McCarthy to inform him of down and distance on every play and give general observations about the offensive execution. The remaining offensive coaches have specific responsibilities for watching offensive line play, blitzes and secondary coverages.

McCarthy, though, said many play-call decisions are made during the workweek in game-planning meetings and other discussions among the coaching staff, because there's little time to ponder play calls on the sidelines. His priority is getting the call to quarterback Brett Favre as fast as possible rather than worrying about calling the perfect play, in part because he's giving Favre more latitude calling audibles than the previous coaching staff.

There never appeared to be a problem during Sherman's six seasons as coach in relaying play calls to Favre quickly enough. But Sherman's offensive system didn't allow for audibles and instead had built-in adjustments depending on the defensive alignment.

"Even if it's not the best situation, you've got to get (the play) to the quarterback," McCarthy said. "He can get that thing set and he can see (the defense). If you're scrambling and you use that 5 or 10 seconds, now he's scrambling to the line, he has to run that thing and take what you've got.

"I'm a big believer in play entry. I'm not bragging, but I think you'll see our play entry will be quick. We'll be in and out of the huddle, get it to that quarterback, especially a guy with a lot of experience, get him to the line and let him get a look at it."

On the other side of the ball, defensive coordinator Bob Sanders will call plays from the field and have linebackers coach Winston Moss signal them from the sidelines to middle linebacker Nick Barnett. The Packers used that system last year under former defensive coordinator Jim Bates, who is Sanders' mentor.

The new staff has been using that system in practice, though it's much easier and faster in that setting because the plays are scripted. Sanders did make extemporaneous calls during last weekend's intrasquad scrimmage.

"It went well in the scrimmage," Barnett said, "but the game is totally different. You've got different personnel (to stop on offense)."